Doctors have come out in support of criticism of the conditions at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital (RMMCH) in Johannesburg. The dire situation at the hospital, which has reportedly resulted in numerous patient deaths, has been highlighted on a number of occasions.
A year ago, Daily Maverick visited RMMCH after concerns being voiced by doctors and patients, and found a number of problems there. This year, a viral video clip showed pregnant women sleeping on the floor at the Gauteng hospital, and Daily Maverick returned to found the situation had worsened, yet the hospital’s CEO Dr Nozuko Mkabayi emphatically denied anything was amiss.
Dr Mkabayi said that although the hospital experiences periodic drug stockouts and equipment shortages, “Patients’ lives are not in danger and there is enough essential equipment. The hospital equipment committee is functional in ensuring adequate equipment needs for patient care.”
Then paediatrician Dr Tim de Maayer wrote an open letter to the Department of Health which sent further shockwaves through the media.
He said that his patients were dying due to a simple lack of basic resources. Drugs were in short supply; staff were massively overloaded; the hospital’s generators were ill-equipped to handle load shedding; and even water supply was threatened, causing hospital-acquired infections to spread “like wildfire”. These issues, Dr Maayer noted, had been raised with management before.
Gift of the Givers had stepped in and sunk a borehole to assist with the water supply situation – although a charity having to come to the rescue of a public hospital is an embarrassment.
Department of Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana acknowledged that the infrastructure was lacking:
“The hospital has over the past decade seen an increase in patient load with no increase in infrastructure development,” she said. “It has steadily increased intake from 10 000 deliveries to 16 000 deliveries per year, which is the second highest in the country.”
“To add more capacity, the hospital has repurposed 22 beds to accommodate more antenatal patients in the last two years making a total of 56 antenatal beds, which is still insufficient.”
RMMCH had requested exemption from the load shedding schedule, she noted.
In an interview with eNCA, Professor Haroon Saloojee, head of community paediatrics at Wits Universiy, said that he “wholeheartedly” agreed with Dr Mayeer, saying that, “what I think he is describing is the ‘complete storm'” and it “contributes to a reduction in quality care.
“[…]it’s the issue of inadequate staff, just not enough doctors but particularly nurses for the patient load – and certainly for the situation at Rahima Moosa has been far worsened that Charlotte Maxeke has been closed for so long and they’ve had to take the load. So a very busy hospital with a greatly increased number of deliveries as the load has become more. Added to that a problem with getting adequate equipment, he makes that point. And to add to that we’ve had both the crises with water availability and to top that all the regular loadshedding which means the generators weren’t coping.
“So you end up with a major storm and shouldn’t surprise then that children’s lives get affected.”
Regarding procurement issues such as running out of bread he remarked, “I’m sure there’s a lot of bureaucracy, but a lot of it is the simple management of the day-to-day running of a hospital, including how it places accounts, and the truth is that many hospitals are forfeiting at that.”
Since his letter went out, Dr Maayer has said there has been some reaction from the government, with President Ramaphosa reportedly wanting to see a response from RMMCH’s CEO. Deputy Health Minister, Sibongiseni Dhlomo has said that the letter is worrying and will be looked into.
